3,000 Baths

As I am reading in 2 Chronicles and Solomon is building the temple for God.
4The Sea stood on twelve bulls, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south and three facing east. The Sea rested on top of them, and their hindquarters were toward the center. 5It was a handbreadth ^e in thickness, and its rim was like the rim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand baths. 2 Chronicles 4:4-5
I try to write about something that catches my eye in my daily reading of the word. Sometimes I am not sure I can unpack this to get its meaning as my pastor says as he expounds on the word. My attention was caught by the sea that Solomon had created. In trying to understand this I googled it and it seems this water held in the sea was for the washing of priests as they came in to do their priestly duties. It held 3,000 baths, or my understanding is 18,000 gallons of water. Right now I am building a sun shower. Campers sometimes use a sun shower to cleanup when camping. I guess that is why this caught my attention. When I am on a road trip, I stop at a truck stop for a shower and it costs these days about $15, so I was trying to design a sun shower I could put on top of my camper, to save that $15 a day for a shower.  I don't know yet how well it will work. I have made mine out of 3 inch PVC pipe that I will paint black to absorb heat from the sun. I have calculated it will hold about 8 gallons of water. Dividing 3000 (3 thousand baths) into 18,000 gallons equals 6 gallons so I guess I am close to a Biblical bath. 😊 Much of what I wrote the day I started this particular blog disappeared after the emoji. But I remember I had looked at Ephesians 5:

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing ^b her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” ^c 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.  Ephesians 5:25-33.   I remember a time some 20 plus years ago when I was reading this particular passage. This is how we clean ourselves spiritually by the washing of water by the word. 20 plus years ago I was reading this and asking God how do I apply this to my life. At the time I was in my second marriage to a Black woman. She had asked me to pray about a church for us to attend. I had been praying about that issue. As I read this passage and asked God how to apply this to my life. I felt like God was saying to me to attend Second Baptist Church in Everett, WA. This was her culture, she had two Aunts that attended this church. The man that gave her away was a Deacon at this church and I thought this is the way I can apply this passage to my life. Men ought to love their wives as they love themselves, and the scripture goes on to say and gave himself up for her. I saw this as a way to do that, by picking a church of her culture, her family and her friends.  Thirty days after my wife  had asked me to pray about this, she asked have you decided? I said yes, Second Baptist. She said; "How the hell did you pick Second Baptist?" Hindsight being 20/20, I do believe I heard correctly from the Lord. It was an experience that changed and corrected some thinking in my life.  It was the first time I ever attended a Black Church and felt like a little white dot in a field of Black.  But they treated me good and it wasn't long before I was on the board of trustees, and felt I was a part of this congregation, even though I am white. I believe healing for his nation will have to come through the church. 10:00 to 12:00 on Sunday morning is the most segregated time in America.  When I first came to the south , I was concerned about where to attend church. Once again I prayed about it.  Everything in the South seems to be so segregated. The Black churches are almost all Black and the White churches all white. God didn't lead me in the same direction this time. The church I felt he lead me to was basically a white church. There were a couple of black families attending 6 years ago , but an amazing thing has happened, over the last six years this church has really become integrated. There must be at least 60 to 80 Blacks on a given Sunday. Two of our Elders have been Black and one of our current Deacons is a Black man. This is the way it is suppose to be, integrated.  I have not been to every church in the Tupelo area, but the ones I have seen, Hope is the most integrated. A few years ago there was a crisis in Tupelo,  a Black man was shot and killed by a White officer as he fought with the officer. The community was outraged and as happened across the country, there were protests. They tried to have a community prayer service to pray for healing for the community. The Black churches would not meet with the White churches for prayer. I think that is really sad state of affairs when Black and White cannot meet together to pray for healing. They formed a coalition called Coalition of Concerned Pastors and Leaders.  They wanted to work on healing the divide between blacks and whites, or so they said. They called for Black representation on the Police oversight committee, which makes sense to me. But I asked about White representation on their board. O anyone can attend their meetings, but it seemed when I did attend the board was all Black.  If healing is to occur, I believe both sides will have to work together. Do you know that in DNA only .01 percent of our DNA identifies our race. 50 % of our DNA comes from our parents. 25% from the mother and 25% from the father.  I really went a long way down that rabbit trail.  God created one race, the human race. It is easier to identify the race of an individual by sight that by our DNA.  God bless, LVZ.